Quick Specs

Publisher's Description

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From Mozilla:
Firefox is an award winning preview of next generation browsing technology from mozilla.org.

Firefox empowers you to accomplish your online activities faster, more safely and efficiently than any other browser, period. Built with Tab browsing, popup blocking and a number of other seamless innovations, Firefox stands out ahead.

What's new in this version:

Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering
the familiarity of the browsing experience.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.Firefox 3.0.3 is far better at rendering HTML and CSS than its predecessors, but it still doesn't integrate well with Mac OS X. It's faster than ever and has more features, but it's still annoyingly clunky. Unless you need or want to use Firefox addons, <rhetorical)Why bother?</rhetorical> The word "feh" comes to mind.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.Contextual menu doesn't work. You HAVE to use the control key, you cannot double finger (for laptops with trackpad) or right click (with mouses that support it) for control clicking like you could in FF2.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.Firefox 3.0.1 has so many odd behaviors I won't enumerate them. Suffice to say (with NO blame placed), I had to disable almost every add on that made me switch to firefox in the first place. On a PPC G4 system 1.25 Ghz, I had the same screwy bookmarks issue that another poster wrote about.

My guess is that this was a seismic programming shift and as such, I'm going to have to call 3.0.1 "a beta"... functionally.
Useless in it's current incarnation, until either the developers catchup or the programmers back down a bit...and the bookmarks issue is a flat out bug!!

It's fast as hell, but but has so many incompatibilities and rendering "strangeness" that I'm not taking any chances until they're worked out. The "help" doesn't address ANY of the problems other than to tell you to turn off almost all your add-ons!

A+ for effort guys, you CAN "FEEL" the changes under the hood, but It's like buying a shiny new Hydrogen car. ... It's great, but you can 't use it anywhere yet...
I can't recommend using this one yet.

...with ver 3.0This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.After finally giving into the "New Version Available" message when starting Firefox, I installed ver 3.0.1 and discovered that my bookmarks were gone and Google Toolbar-Bookmarks wouldn't work. Searching around the web I figured out how to find my ver 2 Firefox bookmarks, but not how to get the Google Bookmarks back. I've now "downgraded" to Firefox 2.0.0.16 (thank you, Time Machine!) and restored my profile (also used Time Machine to restore the profile found in "Users/..user../Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles") to get back to where I was. I also liked getting back several plugins that did not have ver 3 compatible upgrades. I can't say anything about how well ver 3 does other things becasue I couldn't get past the lost bookmarks.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.. . . and as a developer I have them all to vet web projects. I have not noticed any speed problems and the missing features can be had with user definable "Add-ons". Can't get any easier nor better than that. FireFTP is better than the pay for FTP client I have been using for years and it's FREE! I have my version all tricked out because the one thing that really bugs me is large white pages blaring in my face when they open up. I used a "theme" called NASA Night Launch and its further expandable coding to customize my browser and have a Space Shuttle at night as it lifts off the pad as my theme throughout.

So. . . FF is only as useful as you make it. And it can be made to do many things that you have complete control over. I hate it when a feature gets in the way and there is nothing that can be done about it. Here that is not the case.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.I thought WOW!!! GREAT an UPDATE!!! Problems Fixed!!! I'll give them a second chance after attempting to abandon them on version 3.0's woes!!!

Well? Sorry to say, but I still fail to see any improvements to the poor rendering of web pages, particularly unpatched **iWeb sites.

Have now finally lost complete faith in Mozilla and their competency in programming and testing their work.

Back to Firefox 2 and Safari 3 on my Mac's.

And for Windows? Staying with Internet Explorer.

Sad ... So Sad ...

** Yeah, Yeah! I know there's a "fix" out there for iWeb gallery pages etc., but Mozilla should be fixing the browser and not rely on others out there to fix the code on the iWeb 2 pages to the tailored tastes of Firefox 3's rendering engine ... especially when no problems with other competing browsers out there both older and newer.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.CanÃ‚Â´t remember such a lousy software update for years.
Changed all settings several times, but no satisfaction.
Think Mac-version is only a lousy beta?!
Unfortunately I deleted my older version, so I think I will switch to Safari.
Slowest browser ever - so donÃ‚Â´t upgrade from version 2.x

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.I have tried reloading my web site and eliminating the photo frames and still blank pages where my photo galleries are. The entire site is visible with most every OTHER browser-including Firefox 2, but no go with FF3. Keep FF2 handy until the kinks are worked out. This behavior is the same with both the PC and Mac versions.

My advice is if content appears to be missing, try another browser FF2 or Safari. It may be partially to blame on Apple's switch from Dot Mac to Me.com but the pages are still viewable in other browsers. Hopefully a fix from Mozilla and/or Apple is in the works.

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.... and for now I consider this to be a Firefox bug. After using URL Manager Pro since many years I could not imagine to be without systemwide bookmarks anymore.

Anyway, what is the big fuss about Firefox 3? I tested about 25 websites with Firefox 2 and Firefox 3, and Firefox 3 is - if at all - only marginally faster than Firefox 2. I'm also not very excited about the new look; I especially don't like that there is now less optical contrast between active and non-active tabs.

Hopefully there is an update coming out soon. In the meantime I switched back to Firefox 2 and give only 2 stars to Firefox 3.

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Full Specifications

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What's new in version 2.0

Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering
the familiarity of the browsing experience.

Built-in phishing protection:Phishing Protection warns users
when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by
default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically
downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.

Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using
the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search
engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.

Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have
a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of
the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs,
and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads
from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked
if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.

Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like
this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a
standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines
and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.

Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms
(like this one) without having to use a separate application.

Live Titles: When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary
of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title". Compact enough to fit in the space
available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated
with the latest information. There are several websites that can be
bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate
Live Titles for other popular websites.

Improved Add-ons manager: The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining
them both in a single tool.

JavaScript 1.7: JavaScript 1.7 is a language update introducing
several new features such as generators, iterators, array
comprehensions, let expressions, and destructuring assignments. It also includes all the features of JavaScript 1.6.

Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier
localization of extensions.

Client-side session and persistent storage: New support for storing structured data on the client side, to enable better
handling of online transactions and improved performance when dealing with large amounts of data, such as documents and
mailboxes. This is based on the WHATWG specification
for client-side session and persistent storage.

SVG text: Support for the svg:textpath specification enables SVG text to follow a curve or shape.